Tenders

Right then peeps, I'm not sure if I'm in the right place so Boss, can you shift me if I'm not...

we've started going after the odd public sector job- nothing above the OJEU threshold yet, but jobs that are really quite involving. So far, I've been project managing them myself & tbh, I'm not loving it.

we're looking to partner with an individual or organisation who has project management experience- deffo in the design industry and preferably in the public sector.

The current tendering process is shocking, and one that either favours pen pushers & form fillers over genuinely creative people, or one that requires you to put in a ridiculous amount of free work to stand a chance in the process.

I've learned a few really interesting pieces of information-
1. Never go after a tender that is worth more than 25-30% of your annual turnover, you'll be disregarded on the basis that an organisation won't want to be responsible for you potentially going under once the contract ends.

2. Not all tendering systems are the same and it pays heaps to clarify everything- even down to the tiniest detail because you can be disqualified from a tendering process from writing the wrong information on an envelope or leaving a question blank instead of adding N/a.

3. The person managing the tender process from the client side may have absolutely no design experience and it pays to explain the process in layman's terms.

It's a crazy crazy process. Our regional director of the DBA (lovely Scottish chick, can't remember her name) is really trying hard t advocate a new process of tendering & I've just finished a tender for Library of Birmingham which, although value wise was pretty low, was a completely new and pleasant way of completing a tender, even if it did require a week of extremely late nights as they required a full (free) pitch which obviously you can't do it normal work hours.

we're considering using one of those tendering companies to manage the "traditional" tendering process for us as none of us are consummate form filler inners, but I'll still definitely manage the pitch style ones are they require a huge amount of conceptual & creative work.

In short- don't be put off by the process, but do your homework. A friend of ours, MD of one of the biggest agencies in the North told us that it's taken them TEN YEARS to get tendering right.

I've found the tendering game a total waste of time as has anyone I've ever discussed it with. It takes hours filling in totally irrellevant information, you're required to have expensive insurances and I've never had a reply as to why I wasn't considered for any of the projects I enquired about.

I tried joint ventures with larger companies and still aheived the same result - nothing.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had positive results with tendering.

I've found the tendering game a total waste of time as has anyone I've ever discussed it with. It takes hours filling in totally irrellevant information, you're required to have expensive insurances and I've never had a reply as to why I wasn't considered for any of the projects I enquired about.

I tried joint ventures with larger companies and still aheived the same result - nothing.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had positive results with tendering.

Click to expand...

We've had positive results with tendering, you basically must get each element precisely correct, if you maybe consider hiring a tender writer. There's some good free advice on one of our client's blogs here Tender Writer's Blog

Basically, a public body will want to engage someone for a significant or ongoing project so they openly invite invitations from interested contractors and make them jump through a load of hoops to make sure they meet all kinds of organisational and legal criteria.